At Great Joints, we are partial to those places that stay open until the wee hours of the night serving the best libations. But what happens when the lights in the bar get turned up and your stomach is growling? In San Francisco, it means head right away to Yuet Lee for Chinese food that will help fill the stomach while not emptying the wallet.

Natives or long time residents of San Francisco tend to avoid Chinatown. That area is for visitors and for the half a million or so that live in the six square blocks. I exaggerate, of course, but the only thing more difficult than getting around Chinatown is finding a place to park.

Good thing Yuet Lee stays open until 3:00 am. Parking is usually available at that time of night. Surprising is the number of people crammed into this non-descript little restaurant featuring Formica and Day-Glo at that time of night.

If you don’t speak Cantonese or Chinese or Mandarin or what ever, you will find that you do a lot of pointing. Point toward the Salt-n-Pepper squid, anything with Clams, their excellent noodles, and the wok hay (which is fun to say when you’ve had a few).

I’ve had the fish ball soup in their before – the language barrier turned won ton into fish ball – and although delicious, I have to say that I was surprised to see how small the fish balls were

Cash only, open from 11:00 am to 3:00 am every day except Tuesday, and beer is available. Communication is limited, but at the time of night you will probably visit, communication can be as foggy as a summer night in San Francisco.

On many a late night, my friends and I could never remember the name of the place but we knew how to get there. We just started calling it “One Hung Lows” or “Seafood Luet’s” because we thought that was funny. Actually “Avoid A Hangover” would be a better name for it. No matter when you visit, Yuet Lee will deliver excellent sea food dishes from the Orient at very affordable, non-San Francisco-like prices.

D.M.